Residents demand action over street that “eats cars”

INFURIATED motorists are demanding action over a Scottish street that eats cars.

Three vehicles last week had their undersides damaged by “speed bumps from hell” in Grange Terrace, Perth.

It is thought numerous cars have needed expensive garage repairs since the severe winter of 2011 damaged the speed bumps themselves.

The bumps are made of several sections which now lift up every time a vehicle is driven over them, catching the underside.

The bumps lift up and rip out the underside of unsuspecting motorists’ vehicles, it is claimed

Gemma Paterson, from Tulloch, Perth, was left “devastated” by the damage to her Toyota sports car on Friday evening.

The 25-year-old said: “I know those speed bumps are quite hard and because I have a wee MR2 I always crawl over the speed bumps.

“As I went over it it was like a see saw, the back end came up and it ripped the underneath of my car off.

“I can’t use my car now because it’s not protected, it’s not got that cover under it, and if I drive over a stone it could damage my car even more.

“I’m angry, especially as the residents say they have been complaining about it since 2011. You’d expect something would have been done about it before now.”

Ms Paterson intends to pursue the council for the cost of repairs but did not yet know how much it would cost to get her car back on the road.

Residents have complained to the council, with workers patching the gaps with concrete.

Local Tricia Fox said: “I phoned it in as an emergency repair on Friday at 5.30pm. I think it was repaired by Sunday but definitely not on Friday.

“I’ve made two reports to Perth and Kinross Council stating that they are dangerous and need fixing properly, other neighbours have made similar reports.

A victim of the voracious speed bumps from hell, according to locals

“Today there is a full bottom of a car at the side of the road that wasn’t there yesterday, so I can only assume another poor road tax-paying motorist has fallen foul of the speed bumps from hell.”

The vehicles have been damaged after the road surface began to disintegrate following the harsh weather of 2011.

Across Scotland it is estimated there are 400,000 potholes and that it will cost £2bn to repair them.

A spokeswoman for Perth Council said: “We are aware of issues with the plastic bolted speed humps in Perth’s Grange Terrace.

“We were contacted over the weekend about them and our out of hours team responded to make the location safe.

“We are in the process of identifying funding to put in replacement asphalt speed humps, similar to many other traffic calmed locations. We will continue to inspect and maintain the existing speed humps until they are replaced.”

1 COMMENT

Speed humps/bumps are good to make sure that people slow down. However, they shouldn’t be causing extensive damage. I think that a good medium is the key to success. http://www.bossbollards.com.au/humps.html